Afternoon tea with Patrick

We were very sad to have to say goodbye to Patrick earlier this week. Patrick has been with our neighbourhood since the beginning of the year as a part of his Masters of Teaching course at Melbourne University and have thoroughly become a member of the neighbourhood team. He has built up wonderful relationships with our students though his enthusiastic style of teaching.

We would therefore like to celebrate Patrick's achievements by having an afternoon tea this coming Monday (31st) at 2:30 pm. We invite all students to bring a dish of choice which we can share amongst our neighbourhood.

Press Club - Episode 2

Just a quick note to inform you that the second episode of the Princess Hill Press Club can now be accessed through the Intranet section of the website. The username and password has been published in week 6 edition of Talking Point and will be again in the next week edition.

Peer assessment

Neighbourhood 1 has spent the last three weeks investigating and developing our understanding of what an assessment is. We have looked at various projects produced by students around the school and discussed and recorded our ideas on different elements, that put together, make a successful project. After collating these information generated by the students, and discussing further the exact wording, we are now in the process of producing a rubric. This rubric will then be used by the students to peer assess the projects produced by their fellow learners in the neighbourhood.

Incursions

We were very fortunate to have two special guests in our neighbourhood last Wednesday.

Laura Pearse came in to our neighbourhood and presented her incredible VCE media project she created last year. Laura, who is a god-daughter of Julie Effemey, graduated from her high school last year and is currently on a gap year. For her project, she created a film inspired by Jim Henson which incorporated puppets and live action actors. She gave an inspiring talk about her filmmaking journey, through the processes of designing and creating her puppets to storyboarding and directing her wonderful film. It was lovely to see the enthralled faces of our students as they watched the final product at the end.

Laura shows introduces our neighbourhood to one of her creations.

Laura with her fox puppet.

On the same day, Bruce Kane from Australian Broadcast Cooporation came in to our neighbourhood to show us a funny animated short called "Teach Maths To Your Dog". After the viewing, Bruce received some insightful feedback from our students.

Bruce Kane introducing the animated short.

We would like to thank both Laura and Bruce for giving up their time and providing our neighbourhood with rich and exciting presentations.

1-to-1 Computing Program Parents Information Night

There will be a parent information night for people interested in the issues surrounding 1-to1 computing program on 6th September at 7pm in the gymnasium. Presenters will include Bruce Dixon (founder of Anywhere, Anytime Learning Foundation and world leader in 1-to-1 Computing Program), Peter Alibon (Department of Education and Early Childhood Development ICT leader) and Justin Lewis (Beyond The Box, Apple Mac specialist). Members of staff will also be presenting the school perspective regarding this issue. The evening will include opportunities for members of the school community to ask questions.

A Frequently Asked Question page has been added to our school website which may answer some of your questions and concerns before the night. This page can be accessed HERE.

We hope to see you there!

While you're away....

Many parents have been requesting suggestions on what kind of learning their children could engage with when they are away from school on a family trip during term time. Although we think that trips are to be enjoyed without the stress of school work, sometimes it's good to have some learning to focus on if your child is away from school for a long period of time. So Kerri, Keith and I had a brainstorming session earlier this week and came up with some suggestions on activities.

Activities

We also suggest that our students login to our collaborative space on the Ultranet and check on our focus of our learning. Students are welcome to interact with activities put up on Ultranet while they are away from our neighbourhood.

PHPS Press Club

The first episode of PHPS Press Club is finally online! You can access this on the Intranet section of the PHPS website. The login and the password for this section can be found on the next Talking Point and you can also request these through our usual neighbourhood email address phps34n1@gmail.com.

Our vision for the Press Club is for the students to take a leading role in all aspects of making TV programs, from pre-production all the way to post-production. Experiences for students may include, writing scripts, presenting in a studio, interviewing, filming, editing, music making, animating, and much more. Although the Press Club is driven by our neighbourhood at this moment, we are very excited in involving other areas of the school as things develop.